“I’m not paying for a man to watch.”
Carha hit him with the crop again, and theman jerked against his chains. “Enough, Carha,” Aidencommanded.
“I bet you wish this was you,” she purred toAiden as she stroked the man’s flesh with the crop before hittinghim harder.
The crack of the crop mingled with the man’scry. Aiden kept his face impassive, refusing to give Carha thesatisfaction of seeing his craving for pain, but need churnedwithin him.
Carha circled to the front of the man. Sheplaced her foot on the side of the kneeling woman and shoved herout of the way. The woman cried out and scampered into a corner.Her gaze darted to Aiden before she rose and started gathering herthings.
“Are you already done with that piece of assyou brought in here the other night?” Carha inquired as she trailedthe whip over the man’s cheek.
Drawing on the lingering taste of Maggie’sblood on his tongue, Aiden kept himself restrained from attacking.He intended to take Carha alive.
“Look, Carha—”
Whatever the man had been about to say wassilenced by the blow Carha delivered to his face. His head snappedto the side, and his legs gave out. The blood spurting from hismouth sprayed the floor. Shouting obscenities, the man struggled toregain his feet, but Carha’s next blow dropped him to hisknees.
“Enough!” Aiden commanded.
The woman gave up on trying to dress andfled the room. The startled squeak she released in the hallway drewCarha’s attention. Red blazed through Carha’s eyes as she gazedbehind him to where Saxon and Declan stood in the hall. Ronan,Killean, and Lucien were in the club, working their way through thepatrons and employees to see what they might know about Carha’sextracurricular activities.
Carha hit the man again before turning andfleeing toward the back of the room. “She’s running!” Aiden shoutedbefore chasing after her, though he had no idea where she hoped togo as she barreled straight at the wall.
A foot from the wall, she stopped andstomped her foot on something. Hinges squeaked and then Carha fellthrough the floor. Aiden skidded to a stop next to the trapdoorCarha had vanished through.
“Shit,” Aiden muttered as he gazed into theblack pit.
The dim, reddish glow of the room did littleto illuminate what lay below. It could be a deathtrap waiting tospring on him. He never would have hesitated to follow Carha to hispossible death before, but he remained standing over the hole.Maggie.
He had her to live for now, but they weren’tbonded yet. She cared for him, he knew, but she could move on fromthis, and if he didn’t stop Carha, then the hunt for him and Maggiemight never end. He couldn’t let Declan and Saxon do this on theirown either, and if he didn’t move now, Carha would get away.
Wind buffeted his hair and clothes as heplunged into the hole behind Carha.
CHAPTER 37
Aiden landed in a crouch with his fist onthe dirt floor as he surveyed the darkness. Some instinct told himto roll a second before he heard a crossbow release. He bit his lipto keep from making any sound when his back came up against a wall.Dirt rained down on him, and he realized the bolt had embedded inthe wall above him.
Twenty feet over his head, he saw theopening of Carha’s trapdoor. Behind him, soft footsteps crunchingon dirt drew his attention away from the door and to the womanfleeing him. Aiden launched to his feet and raced after Carha. Hehad no idea where he was going, couldn’t see his hand in front ofhis face, but her footsteps drew him onward.
The thrill of the hunt pumped his adrenalinefaster, and his fangs lengthened. Instead of trying to bury hismore malevolent nature, he let it have free reign. He’d intended totake Carha alive, but he would do whatever it took to keep Maggiesafe; Carha’s existence was a threat to her he wouldn’ttolerate.
The footsteps moved toward the left. Heturned to follow them, but not in time to prevent his shoulder fromcolliding with a wall. The impact staggered him briefly to theside; debris clattered to the ground. Recovering his balance, hehoned in on Carha as she continued with barely a sound. She’dtraveled this escape route often to remain so silent down here andto progress so fast.
Hearing a creaking sounded ahead, he pouredon the speed as he realized a door was opening. He ran headlonginto what he initially thought was another wall. The impact rockedhim backward, but not as hard as it should have if he’d hitsomething completely unmoving.
Whatever he hit, swung away from him, andinstinctively he reached out to grab it before he fell over. Hishand curved around the edge of a door. Jerking it toward him, hewrenched it off its hinges. Chunks of debris crashed onto the floorwhen the door smashed into the wall.
As if a dozen tanks were being driventhrough it, the tunnel shook from the impact of the door. Athundering crash rocked the tunnel behind him, and when a shoutsounded, he suspected part of the ceiling had collapsed near Declanand Saxon, if they’d both followed him.
Carha released a startled cry and Aidencontinued his pursuit of her. Judging by the increased sounds ofher breathing and the closeness of her steps, he was almost on her.Then, something creaked again, and the light suddenly flooding thedark space nearly blinded him.
“They’re after me!” Carha shrieked.
Aiden blinked as he tried to acclimate tothe influx of light. He skidded to a halt in the doorway, and fiveheads turned toward him; he recognized the faces of each one. TheSavages’ red eyes blazed in the fluorescents hanging above.
One glance at the cavernous space told himCarha’s escape route had led into a warehouse with the remainingSavages who had jumped him. The concrete floor was barren and nightpressed against the rectangle windows set high up in the walls.
Smiling smugly, Carha slipped behind two ofthe Savages and rested her hands on their shoulders. He had no ideawhy she didn’t stink as badly as they did, but it was clear she wasin league with them. The Savage Ronan captured had ultimately givenCarha up as their ringleader before Aiden destroyed him.
